


no tragedy, no poetry (we're staring at the sky)

by Ushio



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Angst, F/F, F/M, Fluff, Flushed Romance | Matesprits, Gen, Humor, M/M, Mental Health Issues, Non-Quadromantic, Pale Romance | Moirallegiance, Post-Game, Post-Sburb/Sgrub, Quadrant Vacillation, Redemption, also english is not my first language please be gentle, and VRISKA REDEMPTION, anyway have some self-indulgent fix-it fluff, fight me, i love vriska okay, i'll update from time to time, it's gonna get crazy, just a fucking lot of teenagers being dumb, she deserves happiness, so i'm gonna throw all of my hc in here, sorry about that, there'll be angst too, wow that's a shiton of tags
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-04-27
Updated: 2016-04-27
Packaged: 2018-06-04 21:29:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,316
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6676087
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ushio/pseuds/Ushio
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They have been gifted with a brave new world, fitted for heroes and gods. Vriska feels like she's neither — she feels exhausted and paper thin and she just wants some chill time with her girl Pyrope. For once, she feels like she deserves something nice. They all do, in fact. They should all lie barefooted in the grass just because. Someone can play the guitar. That'd be nice. And they can close their eyes and just pretend to sleep. </p><p>They deserve some peace. </p><p>[Or the fic where I explore Vriska's relationship with everyone in their little group — she learns, evolves, and hopefully redeems herself to become a Better Person. Even after the game, even after the ending, there is much to do and much to learn.]</p>
            </blockquote>





	no tragedy, no poetry (we're staring at the sky)

**Author's Note:**

> Hi everyone!!! So, I've been working on this fic since Homestuck ended because, as much as I love act 7, I would have liked some closure on my fave Vriska so here I am writing her story (and the redemption arc that she deserved). The fic is basically a continuation of their lives in the new universe and what they do with themselves. The whole cast appears and everyone is pretty darn important but the main ships are Scourge Sisters (flushed and pale vacillation yaaaay) and Davekat (that's a whole can of worms that I will poke repeatedly through the chapters). I don't know how long this will be or if there's ever gonna be a plot beyond "shenanigans" and "dumb kids" and "jane baked fifteen pies". Join me on this crazy ride and we'll find out :D. (also, I read Homestuck all in one sitting in the last few months and I haven't read that much fanfiction nor have I been long in the fandom... so if I do or say something that annoys or upsets someone please do tell. And I'll try to do better next time :3). (and remember that English is not my first language (spanish is) so if you see any mistakes please let me know so I can fix them and improve my writing, thanks!)

The worst thing about all of this, she thinks, the worst thing is that she feels no shame. None whatsoever. She’s standing at her future grave, one foot dangling over the edge and she can _feel_ acutely the weight of every sin once committed on her back. It’s a heavy burden and she kneels because she has long forgotten how to get up. But even so, even here, if she were given the choice to do everything once again (as John was, lucky little bastard he is) she would have made the same choices every fucking time. She wouldn’t have changed a single thing. And she thought that her lack of remorse was a good thing, that it made her stronger, different, better. More willing to do what must be done when others are not up to the task. She has always taken pride in her lack of qualms about most stuff other people frown about: murder and the like. After all, doing something is better than doing _nothing —_ but now this uneasiness won't let her go and it's granting on her fucking nerves. It's not shame she feels, it's not regret but she can't quite pinpoint—

Ah. Loneliness, perhaps. Accompanied as she is by Aradia and Sollux and Tavros's ghost and Meenah's crabby smile, she feels utterly alone. As alone as the last troll on the universe. _Everything I have done was for the greater good. I was a hero. I killed the fucking Big Bad. That's it, isn't?_ She had thought that was it. She thought that the day would come when she would welcome death with open arms once her goal was complete. She thinks _I'm gonna die a hero's death_ but there is no pride to be felt. There is no happiness, no fulfillment, no sense of finality. She's just going to... die. Stop existing for all eternity to come, not allowed to come back even as a ghost.

She is scared.

She thinks of Terezi, alone, forever deprived of her company. She thinks of never being able to hear her laugh again and something breaks inside her chest. It breaks and breaks and it _fucking hurts_ and she clutches at her skin because she understands now. It's not that she is afraid of Death. It's just the fact that she wanted to die alongside her. She always thought they would die together — as the climax of the last, grand adventure, in a rush of adrenaline and ash and smoke and smiles. She thinks _will she miss me once I'm dead?_

 _“_ Vriska? A-are you crying? Do you, uh...”

She looks up. Tavros is close to her, and his big blank eyes seem to pierce her right through the soul. She doesn't speak. Doesn't even have the strength to do so and he kneels besides her and takes her hand because he has a heart a thousand times bigger than hers. Vriska shivers and she realizes.

_If I had the chance to do everything all over I would never hurt you._

It hits her like a train at full speed, not that she would even know what trains are. Stupid fucking human shit. But she looks at Tavros and she sees his round cheeks and his ridiculous horns and she remembers. She remembers the first time they talked and how cute he seemed if a bit frail. She wanted to love him so badly and everything backfired so spectacularly well. Maybe they were too different. Maybe she's just a huge bitch. Terezi has some things to say about that, at least. She grips Tavros's hand harder and she can't help a grin as she thinks of how far he has come. Fought the Big Bad and all with her. He hold his ground. He made it.

Jegus, if this is what regret feels like, the others can shove it up their asses. She doesn't need this _shit._ She wipes her treacherous tears with the back of her hand.

“I'm sorry I killed you,” she blurts out of nowhere.

His smile falters. He seems unsure and lets her go. The loss hurts her somewhere in her bones and it's a chilly kind of hurt — the cold seeps skin deep into her heart.

“Are you, really?” he snaps. Then they blink. It's the gruffest she has ever heard him. He bows his head, sheepish. “I mean, uh...”

“Yeah, _duh_. I wouldn't have said it otherwise, would I?”

“I don't know. I don't understand you very well.”

“Well,” she swallows, “believe me when I say this: I'm sorry I fucked you up so bad. I thought you deserved it, at the time. I thought I was doing you a favor, but...”

She stops and exhales a shaky breath. Her world is spinning. Regret is a _bitch._

“Vriska?”

“I'm sorry” she repeats and she means it. She means it to the core and she understands that no-one would ever believe her — she cried wolf one too many times. She only has herself to blame. Tavros seems uncomfortable. And some little vicious, insidious part of Vriska, deep down in her thinkpan, realizes that he doesn't have the backbone necessary to forgive. Forgiveness requires bravery. It requires courage and magnanimity and a better heart than any troll could dream to possess. Resolutely, Vriska squishes that tiny part of her thought process with an iron fist. She can't stop the mean part of herself — it's just who she is, but sure as hell she can ignore it. She will not die with this chip on her shoulder.

“I don't think I want to forgive you.” He says.

She nods once. She knew what his answer would be.

“That's okay.”

He smiles. A real, honest to Gog smile.

She pushes him a little and punches him in the shoulder.

“What are you smiling at? Nerd.”

“Sorry,” he says but his voice is light and airy. For once, there is no tension to their bickering. She thinks _if Terezi were here I wouldn't mind death, now_ and then the sadness returns in wide, tidal waves. It's nearly suffocating. It's bearing down on her back and she is going to crack if this doesn't wrap up soon. So she gets up to her feet and walks towards Aradia and Sollux, who are keeping them safe inside a protective time bubble. Aradia has created it and Sollux powers it through some mumbo-jumbo she doesn't even want to understand. Meenah sits by herself a few feet away like the perfect stock picture of sadness. Vriska ignores her and decides not to apologize for waking the fuck up of her ghost. Also, it would get old real fast if she were to apologize for every mistake ever committed.

Aradia smiles at her vacantly when she approaches with Tavros on her tail. Around them the world shatters, cracks and disappears into the gaping black hole that just went and appeared in the sky for no good reason. Aradia has theorized that it's the work of Lord English's sister, Calliope, the one they were supposed to find all along. Vriska couldn't care any less about who created what. Lord English is dead (all thanks to her) and everything is over. She always knew she wouldn't make it alive out of the battle but she had thought of a quick death. A precise blow to the head or her side. Not this pointless waiting. It feels like some sort of purgatory and she is not ready to _think_ about all the bad things she has done just because no-one else had the guts. The Tavros issue apart, she feels no shame, none whatsoever.

And the worst thing is, that it makes her a bad fucking person according to the _morality_ of the general populace and Gog be damned she is not gonna spend one more minute on this rock thinking about her past.

“Aradia, why don't you give it up? We're gonna die anyway so, who cares?”

“Talk for yourself, I'd rather not die again,” says Sollux, who is half-dead or half-ghost or some nonsense of the sort.

“I'm with glasses, yo.” Meenah says from her spot. Vriska shoots her a look. She just shrugs.

“But what's the point? What are we waiting for?”

And Aradia smiles so big-fucking-wide, so wildly, so brightly it shuts her right up.

“I thought you would never ask.”

They all look up after hearing her words, waiting with bated breath for someone to take them away. Nothing happens for a few minutes and she lets the anticlimax wash over her. It’s so stupid that Vriska feels the urge to claw her eyes out and be done with them. What was she expecting? Another miracle like the one that saved her on this new timeline? Everyone’s been short on miracles these days and other people deserve them more. Better people; better souls, probably. Every last one of them shiver a bit at the daunting and inescapable prospect of their death. Even Aradia seems lost for one, fretful second. But then — as if waiting on cue, Terezi appears out of thin air hanging on one hand from John's long, blue hood; he seems deeply uncomfortable by this method of traveling. He's hovering a few inches over the ground and she jumps to it, all crackling energy and wicked smiles. Vriska can't even think before she's all wrap up in a hug and everything is Terezi. Terezi's coarse hair, the softness of her skin, the feel of her hands on the small of her back. She feels so _real_ like nothing else has ever felt on this god-forsaken place. Vriska buries her head on her shoulder and if she cries, just a bit, then no-one will be the wiser.

 _You're alive_ she whispers against her neck. Vriska feels so fucking pale for her she can barely breathe. 

“Sorry we took so long to arrive, guys!” says John. “Somehow, we got lost. Don’t even ask, I don’t get it either.”

 “So,” Meenah interjects, deadpan as ever, “you gonna explain this shit or what?”

“Retconny powers” says John and he just shrugs and smiles. Meenah does a perfect facepalm.

“See? This is why I wanted to wait. I knew they wouldn't forget about us.” Aradia says, still with her hands stretched up above her head to hold the time bubble. She looks so pleased with herself that one could _almost_ consider her expression smug. Vriska feels something akin to pride.

“Feels far-fetched even to me,” replies Sollux with his usual somber expression — his grin is unmistakable, though. “Still, I'm happy you appeared.”

John flies closer to Vriska and Terezi, who have managed somehow to untangle themselves. Tavros waits awkwardly by their side but John greets him with a smile and his face softens.

“Hi, Vriska. I'm sorry we forgot about you! We're lucky Terezi reminded us to, well...”

“Come and save me from a horrible death after I...?” Meenah coughs into her hand and Vriska rolls her eyes. “After we all saved your asses? Oh, don't worry about it. You know, luck's kinda my thing.”

She feels happy. She feels so happy she is bursting at the seams with laugh and giddiness and gosh, _how great it is to live._

“Where were you?” asks Tavros.

“On the victory platform. You know the... round floaty thingy? We have created a new universe! And Jade captchalogued our Earth so... we will all live there. It feels like a proper ending to this journey.” He sounds so earnest and excited that it’s near contagious. Vriska feels herself swaying on the balls of her feet, ready to jump.

“I don't think this is an ending” says Terezi. Their hands are laced and Vriska can feel her warm, warm fingers.

“You're right. It's a new chance to live again! Oh, we're gonna go on so many adventures...!”

“How about we, uhhh, relax for a while?”

“How bout we get the fuck out of here before that shithole decides to shrinks us?!” adds Meenah and everyone seems to agree all at once.

“She's right. Okay, everyone, please grab me. Oh, eh... not... not like that Meenah.”

“Sorry not sorry.”

Vriska grabs Tavros's hand and he's also warm, just as if he were alive. He turns his head and looks at her, all blank-eyed and vacant. She wonders if this new world will be her chance to clean her dirty, bloody slate. _I don't wanna be a hero anymore_ she thinks. _It's tiring to be always so alone._ Terezi hasn't let go of her other hand and Vriska can sense that she will not let go for a very long time. There is despair in her grip. And worry, relieve, elation, surprise. She can feel Terezi’s heart beating through her skin and it's soothing. To feel her alive beside her. To know that they're in this together, forever, never to face death alone ever again.

Terezi gets a hold of John's hood, Meenah wraps herself all over him, Aradia takes John's hand and Sollux half-embraces her. Suddenly, she feels rather sad about leaving the dream bubbles; sad and, in a way, relieved as well. They will never encounter one again and they will never have to revisit the faces of their dead friends over and over until the point of absolute madness. Vriska feels grateful for that because if she were to encounter just _one more dead Nepeta_ she would just fucking—

“Guys! Wait, don’t forget about me!” A voice shouts, awfully familiar, and just a second before John disappears in a puff of windy powers, Davepetasprite grabs Tavros by one of his horns and it shouldn’t be _that_ funny, honestly, but it kinda is.

“Where the fuck were you?” Vriska asks.

They just giggle.

“Wouldn’t you want to know?”

Fucking great. Now she can look forward to spending all of eternity alongside one of the most annoying creatures ever conceived. _Fucking Nepetas, I swear._

 


End file.
